President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 78, faced off in the first presidential debate of 2024 in Atlanta on Thursday night. The 90-minute debate was moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and resulted in many conversation-worthy moments.
The candidates discussed topics such as immigration, abortion, inflation, Charlottesville and climate, while engaging in personal attacks against each other. Trump’s recent conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the historic hush money trial was also mentioned.
But what caught the attention of many experts and viewers was Biden’s performance. The President often stumbled over his words and sometimes even rambled on tangents that others had difficulty understanding. At one point, Trump said of Biden: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of the sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either. The online reaction was strong. Some Biden supporters said the debate “hurt.”
Elsewhere, famed author Stephen King expressed concern about the country’s future given the way the debate has been commercialized.
Towards the end of the debate, one moment provoked an especially strong reaction online: a discussion about golf. Co-moderator Bash asked both candidates what they would say to voters who questioned their ability to serve, given their age.
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Trump responded by saying he was in “very good health,” trying to highlight this by saying he had just won two regular golf club championships. “To do that you have to be very intelligent and you have to hit the ball from afar… He [Biden] I can’t hit a ball 50 yards,” Trump said. “He challenged me to a game of golf, he can’t hit a ball 50 meters.”
In return, Biden said he would be happy to play golf with Trump if Trump could carry his own suitcase. Biden also said that when he was vice president, he was able to reduce his Golfing Handicap score, a numerical score used to ensure that golfers can play fairly with other players of equal ability, “to 6.”
The exchange left many viewers who don’t play golf confused, and others shocked that the topic of golf had made it into the presidential debate. As a result, the exchange became the target of several reactions on social media.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
